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> Plus, honestly, would your customers really mind if you're offline for 5 minutes? Idk what kind of software you work on but in my slice of the B2B SaaS world

> Plus, honestly, would your customers really mind if you're offline for 5 minutes? Idk what kind of software you work on but in my slice of the B2B SaaS world, 5 minutes of downtime during business hours would generate 100s of support tickets with very angry users letting us know they couldn’t do their job.

kevinconroy 6y ago
> 5 minutes of downtime during business hours would generate 100s of support tickets Perhaps part of the answer is that if you're a solo founder who is staying solo, try not to create a business where you have these kinds of dynamics. OR, if you are creating one that does, scale up past being solo ASAP.
- leesalminen 6y ago
  Fair point and agree 100%.
  - o-__-o 6y ago
    I would argue there are some services that need 5 nines (or more) of availability. Your support ticketing system and company web presence are two I can think of. I provide the ticketing service myself but I outsource my web presence (the landing page not the app) to a third party service. My thought is the web site should never go down. If the ticketing system is down it means things are beyond hosed :)
Silhouette 6y ago
If you are a solo SAAS operator and have enough customers to generate hundreds of support tickets in 5 minutes, maybe hiring more help several years ago would have been a good idea? I doubt you're trying to solve the same problems as the GP at that scale, or probably even the same types of problems.
- leesalminen 6y ago
  That’s fair. I forgot all this was in context of solo founder. Back when I was solo we definitely didn’t have that many users.
mewpmewp2 6y ago
Out of curiosity how many customers do you have as a solo founder?
- leesalminen 6y ago
  I definitely had too many users before we hired more developers and support staff. Maybe 400 businesses each with 10+ employees and 10,000+ customers (who also had access to the platform). It was too much and I regret not hiring sooner. Another thread mentioned here that hiring someone you trust enough to own problems when you’re unavailable is daunting. I concur with that.
  - Silhouette 6y ago
    Maybe 400 businesses each with 10+ employees and 10,000+ customers (who also had access to the platform). It was too much and I regret not hiring sooner. FWIW, that sounds like an interesting story/case study, if you're willing to share some time. I'm not surprised by your conclusion, but I'm quite impressed if you managed to scale even tolerably well to that level before bringing in some extra help.

kevinconroy 6y ago

> 5 minutes of downtime during business hours would generate 100s of support tickets Perhaps part of the answer is that if you're a solo founder who is staying solo, try not to create a business where you have these kinds of dynamics. OR, if you are creating one that does, scale up past being solo ASAP.

leesalminen 6y ago
Fair point and agree 100%.
- o-__-o 6y ago
  I would argue there are some services that need 5 nines (or more) of availability. Your support ticketing system and company web presence are two I can think of. I provide the ticketing service myself but I outsource my web presence (the landing page not the app) to a third party service. My thought is the web site should never go down. If the ticketing system is down it means things are beyond hosed :)

Silhouette 6y ago

If you are a solo SAAS operator and have enough customers to generate hundreds of support tickets in 5 minutes, maybe hiring more help several years ago would have been a good idea? I doubt you're trying to solve the same problems as the GP at that scale, or probably even the same types of problems.

leesalminen 6y ago
That’s fair. I forgot all this was in context of solo founder. Back when I was solo we definitely didn’t have that many users.

mewpmewp2 6y ago

Out of curiosity how many customers do you have as a solo founder?

leesalminen 6y ago
I definitely had too many users before we hired more developers and support staff. Maybe 400 businesses each with 10+ employees and 10,000+ customers (who also had access to the platform). It was too much and I regret not hiring sooner. Another thread mentioned here that hiring someone you trust enough to own problems when you’re unavailable is daunting. I concur with that.
- Silhouette 6y ago
  Maybe 400 businesses each with 10+ employees and 10,000+ customers (who also had access to the platform). It was too much and I regret not hiring sooner. FWIW, that sounds like an interesting story/case study, if you're willing to share some time. I'm not surprised by your conclusion, but I'm quite impressed if you managed to scale even tolerably well to that level before bringing in some extra help.